Statement of significance

Olive Pink was one of Australia's earliest university-trained female anthropologists. Working in central Australia with Arrernte and Warlpiri people between 1933 and 1936, Pink was to publish two papers on Arrernte culture, the second in 1936, but soon after fell foul of her anthropological colleagues and this effectively ended this part of her career. She continued to work with Aboriginal people in central Australia, however. She retired to Alice Springs where she died in 1975. The artefacts in the Olive Pink collection are believed to be largely from her fieldwork period in the 1930s.